The Corona crisis must be dealt with now, its economic fall-out must be forecast now, and the recovery must be planned for and supported now. Because of its pivotal role in the fields of labour market, vocational training and skills intelligence, Cedefop will have to deliver critical contributions to the post-coronavirus recovery efforts of the European Union – starting now.

That is why we have started generating coronavirus-related results and findings in our field – helping policy-makers to assess the impact of the crisis on VET systems and how the latter can be used to overcome the former. Our first outputs are collected in this newsletter.

Cedefop newsletter No 99 - April 2020 - Coronavirus crisis and Cedefop’s related work

Jürgen Siebel Cedefop Executive Director Dear subscribers, At Cedefop, we locked down our location in Thessaloniki in mid-March. What is best about it is that we have not had a single confirmed coronavirus case in our workforce. The second-best aspect is that we have not locked down our brains, our expertise, or the relevance of our output. Working from home, we do what the subject of our research – vocational education and training (VET) – is so good at providing: adapting to a changing environment. The corona crisis must be dealt with now, its economic fall-out must be forecast now, and the recovery must be planned for and supported now. Because of its pivotal role in the fields of labour market, vocational training and skills intelligence, Cedefop will have to deliver critical contributions to the post-coronavirus recovery efforts of the European Union – starting now. That is why we have started generating coronavirus-related results and findings in our field – helping policy-makers to assess the impact of the crisis on VET systems and how the latter can be used to overcome the former. Our first outputs are collected in this newsletter. Read about some striking established facts, such as the alarming slowdown of the labour market. as indicated by Europass data, or about some emerging and yet to be investigated trends, like the accelerated prevalence of crowdwork. Find out about the new Cedefop Cov19R index, which reveals the EU jobs at highest risk of coronavirus-related exposure. Or witness how the crisis is already shaping results to be established in the years to come, as the updated questionnaires of our 2021 skills and jobs survey foresee. We have also collected initial evidence from our community of apprenticeship experts and CareersNet partner networks on how countries are currently addressing unprecedented challenges in fields such as apprenticeship or guidance provision. And we have asked our ReferNet partners to highlight European countries’ response to coronavirus challenges to VET. Acknowledging that many of the so-called front-line workers come from vocational education pathways, we look at how short- and mid-term labour market shortages can be addressed, for example by making use of refugees or by investing in healthcare professions. For now, we trust you enjoy reading from home. Please join me in hoping that soon we will again be able to discuss our findings and policy implications face-to-face, in Thessaloniki or elsewhere. Until then, stay safe!

ISSN number:  1831-5259

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